Progressive Geographies weighs in

Stuart makes several points HERE, one of which I had thought of mentioning in my original post but for some reason did not. Namely, the system in the UK with the research assessment exercise greatly restricts one’s ability to go off the ranch and publish in unconventional ways.

Having never taught in the UK or participated in those exercises, I’m not really sure about all of the factors that go into evaluating faculty research in those cases, though I’m assuming that “journal quality” must be one of them. In other words, if I were teaching there and they asked me to give my 5 best articles and it was all articles self-posted on a website, then presumably they’d have their laugh of the decade. Presumably, that is, you’re supposed to dazzle them with impressive journal names, and not just with impressive work.

That would make it similar to a kind of ongoing tenure process.

But there must also be others out there who are roughly in my position, which is that the last promotion is the last time you really need to worry about people getting in your face and hassling you about what journals you’re using.

And I suppose that could still happen to me again, especially if I got unlucky with an unsupportive Dean or Provost at some point, or if I moved to an institution with different ground rules. Fortunately I’m not in that position at present, but in some cases one can’t really escape constant assessment, and then it’s always the same game. True enough.